The present invention relates generally to electronic financial transactions and, more particularly, to a financial transaction method and system for visually impaired, blind, and learning disabled individuals.
Customer activated terminals (CATs), or automatic teller machines (ATMs), have become a well established and convenient means for performing typical banking transactions such as deposits, cash withdrawals, and balance monitoring, thus reducing the need for personal teller interaction and concomitantly reducing waiting time for both common transactions performed by the CAT and transactions requiring a personal teller. These automated tellers offer 24 hour accessibility and still offer privacy and security, as well as customer service via a telephone which is usually located adjacent to the ATM.
Although a vast majority of individuals enjoy the convenience and flexibility associated with ATMs, many individual are limited from sharing these attributes due to visual impairment, blindness, or illiteracy disabilities.
There have been many efforts to enable disabled individuals to enjoy the freedom, equal access, and same opportunities that are available to non-disabled individuals both within the banking environment and in other aspects of daily life. Highlighting and abetting these efforts, are laws which mandate changes to improve access and also serve as guidelines for implementing the required changes.
In the banking environment several changes have been made to assist individuals with disabilities. For instance, banking centers employing phones allow individuals to perform nearly all banking using a touch-tone phone, eliminating the need for visual prompts. Hearing impaired individuals requiring use of the ATM phone for customer assistance are aided by a volume control handset. ATMs also have been configured to make them accessible to individuals in wheelchairs.
Despite this progress, further improvements are still needed to allow individuals with disabilities to benefit from the advances in automated banking services. In particular, today's ATMs present the user with small area buttons which are difficult to locate and distinguish for a visually impaired, blind, or learning disabled individual.